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Online Gaming Industry Review 2009

In 2009, the domestic market size of online games rose by 39.5 percent, reaching 25.8 billion yuan. Made-in-China games amounted to 15.78 billion yuan, up 41.9 percent from 2008 and accounting for 61.2 percent of the entire domestic market share.

By the end of 2009, there were 361 online games in open beta or commercial operation, compared to 293 in 2008. In addition, 115 online games were approved or filed for record by the Ministry of Culture, 80 of which were produced by Chinese companies.

It is noticeable that massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) still dominated the market, accounting for 79 percent of the entire market. In 2009, the MMORPGs generated 20.38 billion yuan, up 35.2 percent from 2008.

Advanced casual games (ACGs) were growing much faster, as shown in the fact that they accounted for 13.8 percent of the online games market. In 2009, ACGs hauled in 3.55 billion yuan, up 49.7 percent from 2008.

In 2009, China raked in $106 million for exported online games, up 47.2 percent from 2008, despite the slowing growth rate of the export volume. A great majority of the exported games were MMORPGs, while the market share of ACGs was quite small.

By the end of 2009, 51 Chinese games were introduced to foreign counties and countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Brazil, South Korea, Thailand, Russia and Taiwan.

By the end of 2009, there were 499 online game operators in China. Tencent become the largest one, closely followed by Shanda and NetEase. They together accounted for about 50.4 percent of the entire market.

Foreign private equity investment in China dropped by 12.3 percent in the first 11 months because of the global financial crisis. But online games remained a closely monitored business by global investors. In 2009, virtual community games for children and social network-based games found favor in investor’s eyes.

Source: White Paper of Chinese Online Games Market 2009 by the Ministry of Culture.

By Xu Xinlei

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